Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Never a frown with Gordon Brown

And he wrapped an aide inside a persian carpet and kicked him to death and threw his body in the Thames.

He punched a hole in a junior cabinet minister with a rawl plug, tore out his kidney, salted it and ate it.

John Prescott made a fair point about Andrew Rawnsley's lack of named sources on an excellent Newsnight on Monday, on which Paxman dropped the f-bomb.

I remember reading a piece by an Amercian journalist describing how she was schooled by her editors. 'Get names. Attribute your sources.' (As seen in the last series of 'The Wire')

She couldn't believe it when she moved to Britain and was allowed to accredit quotes and opinions to unnamed 'sources.'

Journalists here do it as a matter of course, but it is absurd when you stop to think about it.

Rawnsley is just putting words into mouths; that's been going on for thousands of years. But is he Thucydides or Herodotus? (both of whom usually named their sources, even if it was a bloke down the taverna in Herodotus' case.)

Hattersley and Steele both claimed that this story was evidence of a 'dumbing down' of politics, claiming that Abraham Lincoln* was a fiery old mongrel and no-one gave a damn. I've heard peole say the same about Churchill today.

But that doesn't wash. The world was a very different place then. In a stratified, paternalistic society aggression - or bullying - was acceptible. It's not now. If Brown thinks that it is, is it further evidence that he's out of touch with the real world?

Anyway, the next government is walking corpse already. There won't be a honeymoon.

There is no enthusiasm for this election outside of the sort of politico fanboys who read and write stuff like this on the internet.

They aren't going to be in a great state at all because while most other Western economies are climbing out of recession, Britain is stagnant & national debt is dwarfing Everest.

Bring back the corn laws.

* edited some weeks later to add: Lincoln was apparently short tempered because he took a medicine containing a high dose of mercury every day. Is this Gordon's excuse?